How to accept things as it is

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Suppose your children are suffering from hopeless disease. You don’t know what to do. You cannot lie in bed. Usually the best thing for you is to lie in warm, comfortable bed. That is the best place to live, but in such case you cannot rest on your comfortable bed. So you may walk up and down, because you cannot stay still. You think that is the best way. In such case how is it possible to stay still? But actually the best way to stand for the mental suffering is to sit. This is the best way. If you can’t sit in such case you are not Zen student. Even though you work in and out of your house it doesn’t work. It is nearly the same as you try to lie in your comfortable bed. In sitting your mind and your body has power to accept things. In standing posture you have no power to accept your difficulties. In this posture you have big power to accept things. Whether your posture is right or wrong is out of question. So when you sit, you have enormous power to accept things as it is, whether it is agreeable to you or disagreeable to you. You can accept things as it is. When you feel disagreeable it is better for you to sit. There is no other way to accept it and work on it. That is the only way we have. And we have always this wonderful way to accept things. And to work on things.-Shunryu Suzuki Roshi